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countdown

I wanted to create some excitement for our children in the weeks leading up to our big Disney Vacation. A friend of mine had made a Disney countdown for her children. Hers was awesome and had some great educational aspects to it, but I wanted mine to be more geared towards the cruise instead of a general Disney theme.

Here is what I came up with.

This chalkboard paddle countdown was very easy to make, and maybe even a little educational (they got to practice writing their numbers). I picked up all of the supplies very cheaply at Michael’s. Supplies were: Wooden paddle, chalkboard paint, sparkly alphabet stickers and Pirate Mickey scrapbook stickers, paint brush . I also used a piece of paper, pencil, and scissors to make the template for the painted mickey head. Oh and don’t forget the chalk!

1. Draw a Mickey head on a piece of paper that will fit on your paddle. Cut it out and trace it onto the bottom of your paddle with a pencil.

2. Carefully paint the outside of your Mickey head with the chalkboard paint and then fill the outline. Wait until it fully dries before adding a second, and then third, coat of paint.

3. Decorate as you wish with stickers. Stickers that are meant for scrapbooking will be a lot more durable than regular stickers.

And that’s it! Now your children will have fun doing their countdown each day, and getting more and more excited about their trip! On the morning that we left I put the countdown at the bottom of the stairs and had drawn a big zero on the countdown. When the children came down the stairs they were thrilled to see that there were no more days left and it was time to go!

Our good friends came along on the recent Disney Cruise that we took in February. Their family actually did a week at Disney World first. I have to say that my friend, Jackie, did an amazing job at getting the kids prepped and excited for their trip! She has graciously allowed me to share all of the wonderful activities that she did with her family. Even if you are not going on a Disney vacation, these ideas make for a wonderfully fun and wholesome family night (or entire day!). Plus, most of these activities are very educational and a great learning opportunity!

DISNEY COUNTDOWN

In preparation for our family’s Disney trip we decided to do a Disney countdown. We created a poster using poster paper picked up from Michaels craft store. My son, who is 4 years old, was learning numbers and the calendar in school, so I decided to combine what he was learning in school to create our countdown. We cut out numbers that I printed, using word and placed them in order on some construction paper. He had to show me the order the of the numbers and the days of the week. We then decided to decorate the calendar using some stickers we had at home (Disney inspired of course). My son also cut out a Minnie and Mickey Mouse character from one of his coloring books to help with his scissor skills. We had lots of fun making it.

To start the countdown, I cut out a circle for the head, and 2 circles for the ears using scrap book circle cutter. My son glued them together to make the Mickey Mouse countdown. Although…he got tired so I ended up finishing them. Every morning for about 30 days leading up to our vacation, we placed a Mickey Mouse on the day of the week it was. We practised reviewing the days of the week and the numbers of the month.

We decided that every Saturday would be a special Disney theme night. So every Saturday had a special sticker on it, to note that it was Disney theme night. I picked a Disney movie to be our theme and would do something special Disney. We had a lot of fun.

Theme Night One: Toy Story

Every Saturday, leading up to our Disneyworld vacation, we decided to do a Disney theme night, more like a theme day. We would combine books, craft, game, movie and snacks all related to the movie I chose. Here is an example of one of our days.

Good Morning- when my kids woke up from bed, I had the books that we would read for the day out on the coffee table. I also gathered the toy story toys we had at home and had them sitting on the table waiting for them to eat breakfast. They loved waking up on Saturday to find out what kind of day we were going to have.

Books – I gathered any toy story books that I had at home or from the library which we read during the day and again at bedtime. My daughter who is 1 really loves to read books.

Craft – I purchased a birdhouse shaped like a rocket from Michaels, and my son painted it. My daughter loves to paint too , so she painted a little car.

Games –

(1) Buzz Lightyear Blast off – we made a buzz lightyear calendar with aliens that we cut out from images googled from the internet. My husband made a rocket from one of the games we owned called Krazy forts. We placed the aliens on the rocket. To play the game, I used a lazer pointer to point at the numbers. My son had to call out the numbers and when he heard, 3,2,1.. he had to yell blastoff. He was then able to jump and save one of the aliens from the rocket. To save him, he had to read the sight word glued to the alien to protect him. We had lots of fun playing the game.

(2)Hide the Alien – With this game, I used paper cups I had at the house and a toy story figurine from one of the books we had. I glued site words that my son was working on in school. I would hide the alien under one of the cups and mix them around. To find the alien my son had to read the word to lift the cup up. If he read the cup correctly, he got to check what was underneath.

Snacks – nothing says Toy Story like eating Pizza planet pizza. I used a recipe from Lisa’s blog titled Dry Mix Pizza Dough . My son and daughter helped but all the ingredients together and we rolled out the pizza dough to make individual pizzas so we could all put our favorite toppings on…yumm

Theme Night Two: Cars

Good Morning- when my kids woke up from bed, I had the books that we would read for the day out on the coffee table. I also gathered the all of the cars die cast toys we had at home and had them sitting on the table waiting for them to eat breakfast. They loved waking up to them all set out on the table. They played with them for hours.

Books – I gathered any cars books that I had at home or from the library which we read during the day and again at bedtime.

Craft – today’s craft was a really fun one. We decided to make and decorate cars for our drive in movie. We used cardboard boxes that we had at home. I took parcel paper and covered one box as it had a lot of writing on it (although it looked bulky as I did not tape it well). The other box I left and just decorated the box directly. My son painted the wheels made from left over paper plates I had at home. We also used a plate for his steering wheel. My daughter colored hers with markers. I used paper fasteners to fasten them to the box so they spun around. We also used construction paper for decorations and headlights.

The kids then sat in their cars to watch the Cars movie. When the racing scenes were on, my son would drive his car like he was racing, so cute. My daughter, is too young to watch movies, but loved to sit and race her car.

Snacks – cars and tires from Casa Della Tire shop. I used apple slices for the cars and grapes for the tires held together with toothpicks. I bought some mini chocolate donuts from the local grocery store to make the stack of tires. My kids thought having a tall stack of tires was so cool, a bit too much sugar – so I had to take the stack away from them because they wanted to eat them all…ha ha.

Well, didn’t she do an amazing job with her Disney Theme nights? I love all of these great ideas, they really are fun for the children and promote awesome family togetherness!

I recently came across this post from another blogger who did a Peter Pan Family Movie Party. She gave permission for me to share the link to her post – I just love those sweet Peter Pan decorated popcorn bags! Brenda from Chatting Over Chocolate actually has tons of wonderful Disney themed ideas for your family, so make sure you have a good look around her blog!

I hope you have enjoyed this post, let me know if you try any of these activities with your family! Thanks again for stopping by.